Most people who use a mobile device don't really want to know anything about how it works, they just want it to work as simply and intuitively as possible. These are the "ordinary users", people who are using computers for fun or productivity rather than as a hobby. They see computers the same way they see television sets, you switch it on and enjoy without caring about anything deeper.

Obviously all manufacturers do work on making their devices suitable for these kinds of ordinary mainstream non-nerd users.

My question is: does Nokia do this kind of work for Maemo in-house, internally, behind closed doors, or are they basing it on what goes on in the maemo.org community?

What worries me is that the users here clearly don't represent a typical sample of mobile device users. Users on maemo.org tend to be a lot more aware of how their device works, which is great if they want to get the most out of it but not so great if they want to spot problems in user-friendliness.

If there is any kind of programme for making Maemo as user-friendly as possible I'd love to take part in it, but AFAIK there isn't, at least not in public.